FILE PHOTO: Participants in the "walk to end AIDS" event to mark World Aids Day in Manila on December 2, 2023. From 2010 to 2024, they also noted that new infections rose roughly sixfold in the Philippines, with young men who have sex with men most affected. - AFP
MANILA: The World Health Organisation (WHO) in the Western Pacific region has raised alarm about the "sharp increases" in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) cases in the Philippines, Fiji, and Papua New Guinea in recent years, "with implications for national and regional security."
At Wednesday's (Oct 22) meeting in Fiji that brought together ministers of health from the 38 countries and areas in the Western Pacific Region, as well as civil society and development partners, WHO and UNAIDS Asia-Pacific convened to confront the region's HIV crisis amid growing national epidemics and seek solutions to accelerate progress on HIV prevention.
